A sharply divided Lackawanna County Democratic Party appears headed for another court battle over who may serve as party committee members and vote for officers at an upcoming reorganization meeting.
Current county Democratic chairman Chris Patrick, who decided against seeking a fourth four-year term, said he declared 76 recently elected party committee members ineligible to serve as members, which means they cannot vote. He said he did that because they violated a party by-law by supporting non-Democrats in special or general elections last year. He sent the alleged violators letters dated June 10.
“If you openly support a member of another party other than the Democratic Party in a special or general election, you're not eligible to serve on the committee,” Patrick said in an interview. “And if you are on the committee, you will be removed for a two-year period. So that’s what I did.”
In a statement, Lexie Kelly, a leader of the Lackawanna United Democrats, a candidate for party chairperson and one of the barred committeewomen, vowed a legal challenge.
“This is bigger than a disagreement over party politics,” Kelly said. “This is about whether the votes of Democrats in Lackawanna County matter.”
Kelly’s group plans to file a formal ethics complaint to with the state Democratic Party, the statement says.
Efforts to obtain comment from the state party were not immediately successful.
The party has 326 committee seats — one man and one woman for each of the county’s 163 voting precincts. Democrats elected new committee members at the May 19 primary election.
“Hundreds of Democrats worked tirelessly to elect new committee members because they wanted transparency, accountability, and a stronger party,” Kelly said. “Instead of respecting those results, the old guard is attempting to overturn them through procedural maneuvering and intimidation.”
Other critics chastise Patrick
In a Facebook post, state Sen. Marty Flynn, D-Lackawanna, who has occasionally feuded with Patrick and opposes Kelly’s bid for chair because she was once a Republican, said he does not “condone, support or agree” with Patrick’s decision.
“I have family and friends and coworkers who are being targeted and right now is the time to row in the same direction, not sow division!” he wrote.
Patrick said the decision was not personal or related to wanting a particular candidate to replace him. The people he removed include Scranton City Councilman Patrick Flynn, the senator’s first cousin, he said.
“If you break the law for whatever reason, there's consequences to that. They broke our bylaws, that's our law,” Patrick said. “There's consequences to that.”
They also included state Rep. Kyle Donahue, a Patrick critic.
Patrick Flynn called Patrick's decision "a little ridiculous" for a chairman who has never enforced the provision before, citing the 2019 special election for Scranton mayor as an example.
"Members of the committee have run as independents in the past. Members of the committee have supported them," Patrick said. "This by-law wasn't being enforced, and now on his way out the door, it's enforced to the tune of 76 individuals. (It's), just beyond my comprehension that this is the way to leave the party behind, ... to basically, you know, burn it to the ground on your way out the door. It makes me sick."
Efforts to reach Donahue were not immediately successful.
The selection process
The party is scheduled to meet to elect new officers July 7.
Kelly, who has promised to support Sen. Flynn’s current reelection campaign — despite his criticism — and Dickson City Mayor Robert MacCallum are considered the prime contenders for chairperson.
The Democratic background
Rule 7 of the county party’s by-laws says “only duly registered and enrolled Democratic electors shall be eligible to serve as members of officers” of party committees.
The rule goes on to say a person can’t serve as a committee member of officers if the person agreed to support party opponents or “by voice vote, financial support or otherwise has, for within two years, supported a candidate in a general or special election opposed to the duly nominated candidates of the Democratic Party in that election.”
The only exception is if the support is for someone running for non-partisan offices such as school board or judge that allow candidates to be the nominee for multiple parties.
Last year, in special elections, former Democrats — Colleen Gerrity for clerk of judicial records and Michael Cappellini for county commissioner — switched to independent to run against Democrats.
Both ran as independents partly as a protest against what they saw as a closed-door, non-transparent party anointment of candidates for both seats — Lauren Bieber Mailen for the clerk post and Thom Welby for commissioner.
Beyond that, two other independents had something to do with Patrick’s decision. Because of issues with his Democratic nominating petitions, Scranton City Councilman Gerald Smurl ran as independent. Former City Councilman Gene Barrett ran for mayor as an independent.
How Patrick decided
Patrick said he reviewed the publicly available nominating petitions and campaign finance reports of Gerrity, Cappellini, Smurl and Barrett plus photos and published endorsements to determine which Democrats supported them and come up with the 76 ineligibles.
“Probably 50% of them were on multiple petitions, multiple campaign finance reports, and public pictures, and public support, and public endorsements, and all of that,” Patrick said. “I mean, I didn't even use any of that.”
Patrick said he understands he’s declaring ineligible committee members elected by Democratic voters, but said his action is meant to keep “the integrity of the party.”
“You go behind that curtain or fill out your ballot, or whatever you do, and you support who you want,” he said. “Nobody knows what you do. That's a private vote. But when you are a committee member and you openly support people that are not aligned ... that's all a different story with Democrats.”
Last year, the party fought bitterly in court with Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan over replacing former Commissioner Matt McGloin.
Gaughan, who favored another candidate, challenged the party’s replacement process. Many of Kelly’s group publicly backed him and protested outside the closed-door meeting where the party chose Welby and Mailen as its candidates for the November special election.
